


Dance When The World Keeps Turning

by Chanter



Series: Alterna-wielder and -kwami Vignettes [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Backwarder spoilers, Episode Related, Friendly banter, Friendship, Futurefic, Gen, Humor, Temporal Shenanigans, backstory bolstering canon, goat!Jalil Kubdel, references to World War II, siblings being siblingy, timetagger spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 05:39:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20420813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chanter/pseuds/Chanter
Summary: "I've gone over the idea of effect preceding cause so many times, I'm starting to be more than passingly grateful of the fact that I'm not her."Alix isn't the only awesome Kubdel out there.  Or out then.





	Dance When The World Keeps Turning

"I don't need to ask if you're certain about doing this," his friend says, dry amusement and, still, hinted caution dusting each word, "I'm sure." Kind eyes nonetheless lance him from atop the dresser; no one ever said Carrath wasn't sharp as the proverbial pin as well as decent. 

A briefly wrinkled nose isn't enough of an answer, and Jalil knows it. "If I were my sister," he says instead, "I'd tell you that no, you're right, you don't need to ask." 

His belt buckle closes with a jangle, one boot is scuffed into a more comfortable configuration, and his mouth twitches as he meets Carrath's look squarely. "So it's a good thing I'm not my sister. I've gone over the idea of effect preceding cause so many times, I'm starting to be more than passingly grateful of the fact that I'm not her. That's not even slightly my domain." He pauses, smiles properly, and Carrath's own look softens to meet it. "And, no. Or rather, yes. I am certain about doing this. So are Ladybug and Chat Noir, enough to put the plan in motion, and so are past events, at least indirectly." 

"And so is your sister," Carrath quips, caution gone, "whose domain is very much the land of effect preceding cause even if yours is past events." That's not a dig at his vocation. Jalil will never not find that fact some measure of embarrassingly refreshing. Goldgreen-chased black caprine hooves click off the edge of the cabinet, one two, one two, then still. "And so am I, just so we're clear. Not that we haven't disagreed before--" Jalil snorts, and it's half a laugh before he can catch it, so he doesn't bother to stifle the rest "--but if you're definite about your involvement too, then neither of us is in for an argument today. Tonight. Whichever." 

"Speaking of domains," Jalil drawls, and the face Carrath makes in response would have the people of the Internet indulging in a collective fit of squee, were it being made by a standard goat of any stripe. Jalil smirks a little wider, teasing and fond. 

"We have to ignore the walls and floors, not finesse the timestream," the kwami replies, but it's only half a grumble. "I thought you said you were grateful for that." 

"I am!" Jalil's last coat button engages with a pop as emphatic as his amused confirmation. "Give me the static ancient. Can you imagine me navigating in close temporal quarters with my grandparents and their parents, as they were? As they are, technically? Ah, here we go again--how Alix manages this sort of thing every day, I will never know! Forget all the discussion of when a replica watch gets switched where when; even the broad outline of that meeting with the wartime Master Fu gave me a headache for a week." 

"Which is probably a good thing," Carrath snickers as he floats clear of the furniture and lands scrabblingly on his friend's shoulder. There may be nibbling, just a little, at the corner of Jalil's high collar. "As we've already established - the spheres of expertise thing, I mean, not the headache or the mess I can clearly imagine you causing while trying to interact in the near past--ha! If you did know, you'd be one of the people working out the abstract logistics of getting a camouflaged Miraculous into an apartment block under the noses of collaborators, colonizers, Allies, and a bunch of understandably twitchy civilians rather than just handling the legwork with Shadowvine--hey, what! I wasn't doing anything!" 

"The holes in my jacket say differently," Jalil replies, wry, as he bats his collar clear. He goes nowhere near either the snark or the subtle cufflink anchoring his dominant left hand's sleeve, match in all but its small amber jewel to the plain gold one at his off wrist. Carrath looks that way, though, and his eyes positively shine. The kwami's voice, when he next uses it, isn't just warm. It's also downright sly. 

"Heh. Well? Shall we, second story man?" 

There might be the tiniest of attempted nips, after a moment, at a human earlobe. 

"Gah!" 

Carrath cackles. Jalil makes an uncoordinated, two-handed, palms-open gesture and a sound that's somewhere between a growl and another snort, but he's not frowning. "Oh for--fine, fine, fine. Carrath, horns on!" 

The greengold light chases his kwami's continuing laughter, matches it. 

And Cloven strides for the door and out into the night, smiling beneath his mask. Considering what they're both up against and up to, Alix will if not erase him, then at the least kill him if he's late for this.

**Author's Note:**

> Try explaining how an indestructible Miraculous gets passed down through a family, ruined by a set of mundane roller blades, then repaired by magic despite its having gone nonmagically splat, and yet isn't missed by an understandably cautious guardian the whole time... I did. This resulted. And it was fun! Temporal hijinks and the ensuring of already-known history are go. 
> 
> Jalil's kwami's name is both a play on the Arabic for sheep (kharouf) and an overarching term for goats and goatlike things (caprine). For those not familiar with the expression, a second story man is a burglar. Carrath's messing with his chosen, on account of the granted power to move through selected objects, like walls. The entirety of the song from which the title derives is not a match to Jalil! Some of it is, though. 
> 
> Yes, the Kubdel siblings know each other's masked identities. And no, that Sabrina tag's not a mistake. :)


End file.
